


Right Where He Belongs

by Kitsune_Moonstar



Series: Do Some Good [3]
Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Adopted Children, M/M, Magic School, POV Outsider, Sibling Bonding, Sibling Reunion, Teacher Caleb Widogast, Teacher Essek Thelyss
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-25
Updated: 2020-05-25
Packaged: 2021-03-03 01:20:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,084
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24376408
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kitsune_Moonstar/pseuds/Kitsune_Moonstar
Summary: Verin Thelyss has been sent on a mission by his mother, but what he finds at Widogast Academy isn't at all what he expected.  Written for Shadowgast Week 2020. Prompt: Domesticity.
Relationships: Essek Thelyss/Caleb Widogast
Series: Do Some Good [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1762039
Comments: 13
Kudos: 292
Collections: Shadowgast Week 2020





	Right Where He Belongs

**Author's Note:**

> I don't own Critical Role or its characters. Written for Shadowgast Week 2020. Prompt: Domesticity.

This was not at all what Verin had expected. Then again, he really hadn't know what to expect at all with this trip. He thought it was a waste of time. But the Umavi of Den Thelyss had commanded, and so here he was. It had taken him far long to arrive at Widogast Academy than expected. There had been several complications that he hadn't expected in the slightest. One of which had been locating the school to begin with.

Verin hadn't thought it would be that hard. After all, it was becoming a rapidly well known institution. And if you were going to have a school, your students had to be able to find it. Clearly, the students got more specific instructions than he had. First he had needed to get to Nicodranas. Once there, there is an office to check in with. He gets directions to a smaller town nearby from the half-elf who works there and a talisman he's told will activate the teleportation circle to the school. Then he spends another day traveling to this town, only to arrive just after sundown and be informed that he can't actually teleport to the school until morning.

He will say this the inn the town where he had to overnight really did have quite wonderful bread. His breakfast was the best he'd eaten since he'd been on the road. But finally he was able to teleport to the school itself. To be honest, Verin wasn't entirely sure where in the world he was, but it was clear which way to the school. A large manor house with several towers filled most of the view. There was also a pair of guards and a human woman waiting by the teleportation circle.

It quickly became clear that the woman was the sort of bureaucrat that singlehandedly kept an institution running. And Verin knew better than to try and get around one such as she. So instead he gets a lecture about rules for visitors at the school and has to sign a log book and is reminded he'll need to sign out in order to leave. He also got instructions on where to find his brother though.

"The professor is teaching out in the courtyard today. The lesson should be completed about two. You are welcome to observe, but please do not interrupt the lesson. Do you understand?"

"Yes, ma'am."

And with that he was free to enter the school's grounds. It was an impressive set up. There was a large manor house that housed the school and dormitories as well as several smaller cottages and other building scattered about. There was also a small tower. Verin had a hunch that was his brother's abode, but that was information he hadn't been given. It didn't take him long to find the courtyard and with it his brother.

Verin stopped in the shadows of the eaves to observe. He was close his brother was seated under a large tree that was clearly spelled to protect him the from the sunlight that was filling the rest of the courtyard. There was a group of five students ranged around him, a human boy, a tiefling girl, a halflling girl, and two elven boys. Each seemed to have an animal of some sort either in their hands or on their shoulder. Essek himself seems to have giant pile of grey fluff in his lap. At least until it shifts, and Verin can make out a nose and ears. It seems his brother's familiar is a bunny rabbit.

He studied his brother. He doesn't think he'd ever seen Essek look so casual before. Oh, his clothes are well made and stylish, but simple and practical. He wore little jewelry, earrings and a ring on one of his fingers, and his hair was tousled more than anything else. Essek also looked lighter somehow. Gone was the cold Shadowhand that Verin was most familiar with and in his place was someone far more approachable. His tone as he spoke was gentle and firm. He was giving instructions about their familiars which they had apparently just learned to summon.

Teaching was never something Verin had ever considered as a path for his brother, but now that he thought about it, it did make sense. Essek had always loved knowledge. He had preferred his books and research to people for years. Verin vividly remembered the moment he realized that maybe it wasn't that his brother didn't like other people, it was that there hadn't been anyone who understood his brother. They'd been at some formal event, and he'd caught sight of Essek talking animatedly with the human arcanist from the Mighty Nein. It had been like seeing an whole different person in the place of his brother.

Shaking off the memories, Verin waited for the lesson to conclude. Now more than every he was certain that this was a fool's errand. Essek seemed to belong here in a way that he never had at home. He had often felt that he hadn't really found a place to belong until he had joined the Aurora Watch. Maybe Essek had felt the same way and had just been better about hiding it.

"All right, since you have just summoned your familiars, we'll have out tea out here today so you have a chance to continue to get to know them without the eyes of your fellow students on you."

As Essek finished speaking, a servant appeared in the courtyard with a cart with snacks. He's followed by the red haired arcanist that Verin remembers from Rosohna and three half-drow children. Verin can't help himself; he gapes at the three little girls. They appeared to be around four years of age. They're clearly triplets, though they look absolutely nothing like Essek. His gaze darts back to his brother, who meets his eyes and quirks his lips into a smile. He beckons Verin with a crooked finger.

"Come join us for tea."

Room was made for him and other others in the loose circle. Verin found himself on Essek's right while the arcanist was on Essek's left. Essek had lifted his familiar off of his lap to make room for one of the little girls while another took up residence in the arcanist's lap. Verin wracked his brain of the man's name. He should know what it was. The third girl seated herself between the two elven students, looking completely at home. The two boys shared a look and smiles even as they helped themselves to the snacks that were being passed around, including snagging a purple cupcake for the little girl. 

He was getting curious looks from several of the students even as Essek calmly handed him a cup of tea.

"Do you still like it unsweetened?"

Verin nodded. This was not at all how he expected it to go. He had expected to find his brother, lay out their mother's demands, get the cold shoulder, and leave. Tea and children had not figured into things at all.

"Professor Widogast, who's our guest?" That was the halfling girl with a weasel draped around her shoulders.

"My brother Verin."

"You have a brother?"

Essek was married? Or at least he assumed so if he was no longer using the name Thelyss.

"Did you think I just appeared fully formed out of the ether?" the tease was gentle.

The girl rolled her eyes. "It's just weird to think of you with family. I mean other family."

"Headmaster Widogast, I don't remember rabbits being mentioned as a possible familiar?" that was one of the elven boys.

The red-haired arcanist, who was also his brother-in-law apparently, smiled. "They're not typical familiars, and for the most part rarely show up. Most people have a form in mind when they summon their familiar. You two and Essek are the only ones I know of with familiars who take that form, but I'm sure that you can't be the only ones."

Verin sipped at his tea, trying to take everything in. He'd known that his brother had taken a position at this school. He'd also known that it was unlikely that Essek would be willing to come back to Rosohna. Since his resignation as Shadowhand, his brother had rarely been in the city and only when the Might Nein were visiting. And now that Nein were scattered to the winds, he hadn't been in years. But Verin hadn't realized how much of a life his brother had been building. He'd assumed that Essek's life would be the same, working and studying off in his tower. He'd never really thought Essek liked other people. Clearly he had been wrong.

Essek was good at this too. He seemed able to converse with his students while feeding the child in his lap a cupcake, and the students clearly liked and respected him. Verin was pulled out of his musings by a small hand tugging on his sleeve. The girl who was sitting in Essek's lap was looking up at him with large silvery eyes and solemnly offering him half a cupcake.

"I don't think your Uncle Verin wants your cupcake, Una," Essek told her.

"Uncle?"

Essek smiled. "At this point, Caleb and I have to admit that this isn't a temporary situation. We've pretty much adopted the triplets. Congratulations, you have three nieces."

"How?"

"Uncle Fjord made the mean man go swimming," he was informed by the child.

"Fjord found them on a slave ship. They had been sold for magical experimentation since they were triplets."

"Has the buyer been dealt with?"

Caleb Widogast and Essek traded looks.

"Yes," was all that Widogast said though there was something in his tone that made Verin think that this was not a man to be crossed.

"So, nieces."

Essek nodded.

"Una," he gestured to the child in his lap. "Caleb has Aylin, and Elora is the one obsessed with rabbits."

The little girl sitting between the two elven boys looked up from where she was petting one of their rabbits. Verin waved awkwardly. Essek just looked amused. Verin did manage to get through tea without any other major revelations. Afterwards, the students dispersed while Essek and his husband seemed to have a conversation without words before his husband herded the little girls away leaving Verin alone with his brother.

"As amusing as this has been, I can't imagine you just came to satisfy your curiosity about what I've been up to."

Verin shook his head, a rueful smile on his face. "No, I'm here on what I had already assumed was a futile mission, and I won't insult you by trying to convince you mother is right. It was obvious to me that you were not planning to return to the Dynasty from the start, and even if it hadn't, I would be convinced of it after today."

"Mother wants me to come back." His brother sounded grim. "I thought I'd managed to disown myself when I left, but maybe I wasn't clear enough."

"To be honest, I'm not sure that anything short of you publically denouncing the Luxon in front of the Bright Queen and the rest of her court would do," Verin told him. "She seems to think that this is some adolescent rebellion. It probably doesn't help that none of her other children have had the political success that you did."

"I'm not going back to that."

Verin snorted. "Obviously. You've got a husband, children, and a school here. Not exactly easy to move back to Rosohna with you even if you wanted to. And something tells me you're not really that interested in doing that even if it was that easy."

"I'm done with that life," his brother confirmed.

"I'll make sure Mother knows that." Verin told him. He paused a moment before adding "I wouldn't mind letters. The idea of you with children still boggles the mind."

Essek smiled at him, his shoulders easing. "I can do that. It wouldn't hurt for them to have relatives they know in the Dynasty."

Verin suddenly wanted to get to know this brother. The one that seemed like a person rather than a position. He'd given up on having much of a relationship with his older brother years ago, but here where it was clear that his brother belonged and was happy, maybe there was a chance for them to be something other than indifferent acquaintances with shared blood.

"Stay for dinner," Essek offered.

"I will."


End file.
